Python is considered to be a mature programming language, besides of being widely accepted as an engaging option for scientific analysis in multiple areas, as will be presented in this work for the particular case of solar physics research. SunPy is an open-source library based on Python that has been recently developed to furnish software tools to solar data analysis and visualization. In this work we present a graphical user interface (GUI) based on Python and Qt to effectively compute proper motions for the analysis of time series of solar data. This user-friendly computing interface, that is intended to be incorporated to the Sunpy library, uses a local correlation tracking technique and some extra tools that allows the selection of different parameters to calculate, vizualize and analyze vector velocity fields of solar data, i.e. time series of solar filtergrams and magnetograms.

Solar radio astronomy is a fast developing research field in Colombia. Here, we present the scientific goals, specifications and current state of the First Colombian Solar Radio Interferometer consisting of two log-periodic antennas covering a frequency bandwidth op to 800 MHz. We describe the importance and benefits of its development to the radioastronomy in Latin America and its impact on the scientific community and general public.

The concept of “self-organized criticality” (SOC) was originally proposed as an explanation of 1/f-noise by Bak, Tang, and Wiesenfeld (1987), but turned out to have a far broader significance for scale-free nonlinear energy dissipation processes occurring in the entire universe. Over the last 30 years, an inspiring cross-fertilization from complexity theory to solar and astrophysics took place, where the SOC concept was initially applied to solar flares, stellar flares, and magnetospheric substorms, and later extended to the radiation belt, the heliosphere, lunar craters, the asteroid belt, the Saturn ring, pulsar glitches, soft X-ray repeaters, blazars, black-hole objects, cosmic rays, and boson clouds. The application of SOC concepts has been performed by numerical cellular automaton simulations, by analytical calculations of statistical (powerlaw-like) distributions based on physical scaling laws, and by observational tests of theoretically predicted size distributions and waiting time distributions. Attempts have been undertaken to import physical models into numerical SOC toy models. The novel applications stimulated also vigorous debates about the discrimination between SOC-related and non-SOC processes, such as phase transitions, turbulence, random-walk diffusion, percolation, branching processes, network theory, chaos theory, fractality, multi-scale, and other complexity phenomena. We review SOC models applied to astrophysical observations, attempt to describe what physics can be captured by SOC models, and offer a critique of weaknesses and strengths in existing SOC models.

For developing countries it is very important to derive maximum use of data obtained from their own telescopes. This is not only related to maximizing science returns on capital investment, but also to maximizing science output. In this paper we describe how we are utilizing software tools to realize this goal. This paper discusses the design and main features of our software tools, and planned future developments. The primary vehicle for general data interpretation is through various interactive techniques of data visualization. Our software employs an object oriented approach which facilitates data processing for experienced users as well as being easier to learn for novice users. This leads to greatly increased efficiency in every phase of data analysis. For developing countries the kind of software we are developing and the virtual observatory concept holds out the hope of advancing capability and efficiency in scientific research.

In this paper the basic researches, telescopes and devices of the Khurel Togoot astronomical observatory, which was founded during the International Geophysical Year, are briefly described. Our astronomical observatory is located on Bogd Mountain near the capital city Ulaanbaatar. Almost 50 years of scientific work has been carried out there. In particular, astrometric researches, GPS, solar researches and observations of minor planets are conducted. Now these scientific researches basically are maintained and extended, with the introduction of modern technology. As an example of the data received by our solar telescope ‘Coronagraph’, some solar images will be shown. Recently we equipped this telescope with a CCD camera. Because of the transformation of the economy in Mongolia, there are at present difficulties with the preparation of young professional astronomers and with the purchase of new astronomical equipment.

One of the purposes of a Virtual Observatory is to facilitate data sharing. Data products from the Solar Multi-Channel Telescope and the Solar Radio Telescope at Huairou Solar Observing Station, Beijing, are not only used for solar research but also for solar activity and space environment predictions. To provide these services, we have exploited a number of technologies, which we discuss in this article. These include the setting up of a WWW server, a local area network, network security facility, data processing software, etc. We discuss the implementation of a Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) and show how it meets various user requirements for unified international metadata. We also discuss future plans for further development of the system.

Observations of source regions of coronal mass ejections have progressed enormously in the past decade with the observations from SOHO and Yohkoh. Progress has been made on understanding magnetic helicity, coronal dimming, coronal waves and flares in terms of their relationship to CMEs. Observations have been used to verify and disagree with models such as tether-cutting, kink instabilities and the breakout model. We will describe the observations, recent models, and how future observations from the Solar-B and STEREO missions will address many unanswered questions.